Guys, my chocolate lab pup will be 5 months old when a obedience class starts up at the end of Oct, it's been well over 20 years since I attended a obedience class. Do you think it's a good idea or should I be looking at doing it on my own? Another question I have is that reading about the training on the site they teach the command COME and I have been teaching the pup HERE, what would I do in that case?

Yes, I think classes are an excellent idea. I haven't trained a dog in over 20 years and am looking forward to starting classes with my new pup. While all of my family dogs have been well behaved, I think I want to do a little more with this one.

Yes, I think classes are an excellent idea. I haven't trained a dog in over 20 years and am looking forward to starting classes with my new pup. While all of my family dogs have been well behaved, I think I want to do a little more with this one.

I am using a Retriever training book by Loveland and Rutherford and they use the HERE command, so I stuck with that. That is the only reason. I do have a tendancy of saying COME HERE!! Is it to late to change or just stay with the HERE.

Nope, it is not to late to change. Just make sure that you do not use the word come if you can not make the dog come to you. In the house, outside, it doesn't matter. Once your pup learns that come is an option, then you have one more bad habit to break. You will find that teaching good behaviours to start with is much easier then retraining.

I took my chocolate lab to school and my trainers taught both "here" and "come". - -

"Here" was taught as an informal command - meaning that it doesn't have to be right this second - say for example if you call them from the backyard to come to the house and they want to stop and do their business or do some smelling - thats fine (provided you have time to wait of course!)

"Come" is a formal command meaning NOW - don't smell the flowers, don't go to the bathroom - come straight to me right away.

That's worked well for me - I try to use "here" most of the time (the hard part was trying to remember to use that instead of come!!) and save come for when it's really important.

Classes are great for all dogs of all ages. Even if you know how to teach cues there is so much more that a dog will get out of classes. Seeing that your pup will be entering adolescence shortly so training and socializing is very important.

Why do you have to change? I don't understand. If you subsitute "here" when they say "come" I don't see how it will be a problem. I always believed that you should say with the commands that come out of your mouth naturally because then in a crunch, you will say the right thing...

My doggies know "come" means "come towards me or with me" and "here" means "come all the way to me" and "come 'ere" means they have something hanging off their body and I have to perform an inspection.

It is really about your attitude and intentions not the words. You could say 'pizza' it really dosen't matter.
We have people come to us and say "my dog will only release if you use the word 'release'" (they usually have a snooty tone when they say it too!). We say 'oh, humm..... and tell the dog "PUMPKIN PIE!" and the dog releases to us because it was our tone and intentions that told him what to do not the word. The client is usually surprised but also wiser for the experience.